


Strike dumb

by Giulietta



Series: Mari-nyan [53]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Grades, Kwami Swap, POV Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Role Models, Slice of Life, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:33:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24177454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Giulietta/pseuds/Giulietta
Summary: Marinette is never prepared to recite the excuses in her list in front of the teacher during class, moreso when she decided to sit behind her crush.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Mari-nyan [53]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1745011
Comments: 3
Kudos: 110





	Strike dumb

Marinette Dupain-Cheng expected a lot of things when she rushed to school.

_She expects an Akuma to come out. She expects tripping from something or even nothing. She expects forgetting her textbook or tablet in class._

Fortunately, these expectations can be solved.

_Akuma?_ Transform into her alter ego, stall the akumatized villains, team up with Mister bug, rush back to home and tell her parents afterwards. She does need an excuse slip to enter class for her extreme tardiness. No. She will not obey the cheese cat and tarnish her no absent record.

_Tripping?_ Get back up and keep running. She'll check if there's a bruise or scratch later once she reached class.

_Forgetfulness?_ She can always ask her seatmate *cough! Alyaisagoddess cough!* to share her books. If it were an assignment or project, Marinette should run back to grab it. ~~Better to have the material than nothing am I right?~~ Plagg's fine with the power abuse _coz all this kwami wants is 'em stinky cheese._

Then there is one thing she may not be ready for... [ _QUESTIONS!_ ]

Since she has to keep her superhero identity a secret, Marinette has come up with a list of excuses which she made sure NOT to repeat (because of a certain lovable reporter). Most of her alibis are ridiculous but BUT! It is possible and very like her. Not only is she the most unlucky girl in school, but now her misfortune doubled after procuring the black cat miraculous. _GrreaAat!_ An example would be getting chased by a mad pigeon and don't get her started with the angry terrier. ~~Maybe the dog knows she's a superhero cat?~~ Another being kidnapped by a friend due to some emergency. ~~Jagged Stone doesn't mind being used an excuse to skip class if it's her.~~ Thank goodness most of her tardiness is due to an akuma attack or who knows-

"Marinette."

"Miss Bustier!" Marinette replies in turn, about to sit down when her class adviser calls her name. She knows the drill. She's ready. It's time to use her 3 ~~00th~~ excuse to her ~~favorite~~ best teacher in the world. "I can explain!"

"Yes. Do explain to the class how you managed to maintain your grades." Miss Bustier smiles at her and Marinette freezes.

"Huh?" Marinette repeats. Miss Bustier usually looks resigned, curious or mildly irritated on the worst case scenario. **Never happy or inspired.** _What is this blasphemy?!_ Marinette sneaked a look at her purse, only to see a stuffed kwami chewing on those cheese balls she made for him ten minutes ago. _The_ _reason for her tardiness for today, to be honest._ Plagg shrugged and Marinette expected that.

"Uh..." Marinette bit her lower lip. She might have misheard or ignored some words, but she's pretty sure her grades in Math and physics are abysmal. Even with the help of her superhero partner ~~Mister bug is godsend~~ , Marinette knows her average would be a B at most. _There's nothing amazing with a measly B._ Unfortunately, Marinette noticed the silence. The expectant look in her teacher's face doesn't bode well. 'Oh kwami what do I do?'

"I mean! It's not that hard... I just..." Marinette knows this has something to do with her grades. 'Must be high? Think Marinette. You can't say Mister bug helped you in math. That would be disastrous and really delusional because there are so many fan girls for mister bug and you are faithful to Adrien- Damn it Marinette get your head out of the gutter! Think! Any half-baked excuse will do-'

Adrien Agreste decides to turn around to look at her right in the eyes.

'The sun has graced me with his presence.' ~~Marinette.EXE crashed~~. Adrien is looking at her. It's not just any stare. It's **the** stare.

Whether or not her mind decides to mess with her, Marinette felt some sort of connection from just mere eye contact. She can already see the wedding bells! The flowers! Her parents wearing Adrienette shirts!(?) The cake! Alya and Nino also wearing Adrienette shirts!(??) Heck even their hamster and **Bug** \- Wait. What?! Why is Bugaboy in her dream wedding? Noooooooo! That means there's an akuma and she has to skip her wedding to save the world! But Adrien! He'll definitely hate her forever and she'll be blacklisted in the fashion world for maybe seventy years or something! She'll have no choice but to stick at the bakery handling the cash register, living alone with Plagg, smelling like cheese and taking care of her one-no-three hamsters that might as well have the name of her supposed children-

"You were motivated by **Mister Bug**?" Miss Bustier looked at her with an amused smile.

"Wait! That's not what I meant!" Out of all the things she said aloud, Miss Bustier had to hear Mister Bug. Marinette groaned, judging from snickers from the class. 'As if Weredad isn't bad enough.'

"I meant to say **Lady Noire**!" Ok. Now Marinette is winging this. To avoid getting clumped up with those Mister bug fans ~~not like that's a bad thing~~ but Alya did tell the class about Mister Bug rejecting her, Marinette might as well use herself as an excuse. Everyone loves Mister bug so much that Lady Noire gets overshadowed to the point of mystery. Well... ~~The only social network medium who wants to interview her is Alya and even then it's to talk about Mister Bug.~~ No one can deny her alter ego is smart right? Lady Noire is the one with the plans between the two so it makes sense for clumsy Marinette to look up to careful ~~and very destructive~~ Lady Noire as her role model. Marinette waved her hands, hoping to look convincing. "Not like I think Mister Bug is dumb, but Lady Noire is pretty awesome and smart."

"Oh I see." Miss Bustier covered her mouth in one hand, clearly amused at her reasoning. Miss Bustier has taken care of her class twice in a row. That woman must know something! _Marinette has to take better caution around that woman._

"Yes! A hundred percent." Marinette nodded, pigtails bouncing slightly. It's really nice for Plagg to change her hairstyle during transformation, making it way harder for the audience to realize it's her. In fact, no one would ever expect someone like her to be Lady Noire.

"All right. Take a seat." Miss Bustier's smiling. _Marinette should ask Plagg to listen in on the teacher's lounge during break._

"Psst. (As soon as Marinette sat down, someone called her attention. She looks to the left.) I didn't know you're a Lady Noire fan." Alya whispered, having one of those mischievous smiles again. "So that's why you don't like Mister Bug."

"I like Mister Bug, but not as much as Noire." Marinette leaned close to her friend, admitting the truth. She saw Mister Bug as an ally, a partner in law(?) who is amazing in taking care with the reporters. Marinette feels Mister Bug must be a celebrity underneath the mask, but her intuition is gearing her closer to sheltered child. _Mister Bug has really good time management skills._ "And don't you like Noire better? She did give you an interview the other month."

"Please pull out your textbook and turn to page 219...."

"Yeah but we're talking about Mister Bug. He's like **the** hero. Noire is like a better version of a police officer." Alya pointed out.

"Fair point." Marinette cannot deny that, moving away from her friend to focus on the lesson. If she were under the shoes of Mister Bug, she'd be the popular one. The hero who can repair everything before the akuma attack. A small part of her accepts her uselessness and that's fine because she wouldn't give Plagg up for anything, even if the price is to work under Gabriel Agreste.

"What an ego." Plagg remarked as soon as Marinette opened her bag.

"Quiet you." Marinette rolled her eyes at the cheese bread menace and grabbed her book, partially closing her bag for the kwami to breath. She mutters under her breath, knowing her kwami can hear. "It's called self-esteem."


End file.
